|
Jewish Creativity in the Holocaust
Exhibition of Jewish Creativity in the Ghettoes and Camps, under Nazi Rule (1939 - 1945)
Presented by Yad Vashem in cooperation with the World Council for Yiddish and Jewish Culture the World Jewish Congress, and the Jewish Agency
The object of this exhibition is to publicize one of the aspects of the history of the Jews under Nazi rule which is the most difficult to portray and therefore to pass on to future generations — the internal Jewish response to the events of the Holocaust. The subject of this exhibition Is the internal spiritual resistance of Jews against their persecution and extermination planned and carried out by the Germans, to simultaneously liquidate the Jewish people and wipe every trace of Judaism off the face of this earth.
The Jews' resistance was manifested in a wide range of creative activities undertaken in the ghettos and camps, as well as in works of literature and art and not only In the daily efforts of Jews to establish various frameworks for self-help activities. The number of works lost or destroyed in the course of the Holocaust is undoubtedly larger than the remnants which were recovered — yet nonetheless to this day even the works in our possession have still not all been collected, arranged and studied in a systematic manner.
This exhibition, which was prepared and is being opened In conjunction with the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto revolt and the thirtieth anniversary of the State of Israel, is the first step in a comprehensive program to collect and study all the various sources on the annals of Jewish culture in Nazi–occupied Europe during World War II. This program — it is hoped — will provide valuable source material to be used in teaching the subject of the Holocaust. Despite the extensive research which has been undertaken over the last thirty years on the internal life and responses of European Jews under Nazi rule, large portions of the documentation discovered are still relatively unknown.
These documents have not been accorded the attention they deserve and therefore have not been recognized as part of the cultural treasures of this generation of
Jews nor have they been brought to the attention of the non–Jewish public.
This exhibition is therefore made up of original and hereto unknown documentation, produced In the ghettos and camps during the years 1939—1945. It was designed to present the manifestations of Jewish creativity in the face of death as an expression of the Jews' perseverance and their staunch belief in the eventual triumph of truth and justice even during the times when it seemed as if righteousness, mercy and justice had disappeared off the face of the earth.
Most of the material presented in the exhibition is from the Yad Vashem Archives in Jerusalem and from the collections of documentation at Belt Lohamei ha-Gettaot, Moreshet, Masua, YIVO, the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw as well as from private collections.
The mobile exhibition will be on display In the Jewish communities of 12 countries during the year 1979.
Due to the nature of the exhibition which is in essence documentary and which therefore presents certain communication problems, we have added tens of original photographs from the Holocaust period in order to more effectively portray the various subjects. There are thousands of authentic photographs in the archives of Yad Vashem and Belt Lohamei ha–Gettaot which depict the daily life of Jews and their attempts at creativity during the Holocaust. Several tens of these photographs were chosen to illustrate the various displays of this exhibition.
back to top
The Warsaw Ghetto Archives
The largest of the clandestine Jewish archives, economic life in the ghetto, the house the Warsaw Ghetto Archives (otherwise known committees, and other important aspects of by the code name "Oneg Shabbat") were ghetto life (including cultural and religious established In Warsaw In October 1939 by the activities); monographs on the fate of Jewish historian Dr. Emmanuel Ringeiblum. The archives communities In various cities, towns, and contain documents from all over occupied villages; hundreds of diaries, accounts, Poland, as well as material from documentary underground newspapers, and many projects Initiated by its members. They functioned documents which shed light on the activities in in the ghetto until April 1943 and afterwards on the underground and the struggle of the Jewish the Aryan side of Warsaw, as the archives of the Fighting Organization; as well as many original Jewish National Committee, with the active literary creations from that period. participation and under the direction of The parts of the collection which have been Ringeiblum. To date, only two of the three parts recovered are housed in the Jewish Historical of the archives which were buried have been Institute in Warsaw. Many copies are to be recovered. Among the documents contained in found in various archives throughout the world, the archives: surveys and monographs on primarily at Yad Vashem.
back to top
The Bialystok Ghetto Archives
Known as the Tenenbaum–Mersik Archives. The idea for the establishment of an archive similar to the one established by Emmanuel Ringelblum in Warsaw was put forth by Mordechai Tenenbaum in November 1942. Zvi Mersik, of the Dror–Hehalutz kibbutz supervised the collection of testimony and he personally interviewed the refugees from the Jewish communities near Bialystok which were liquidated by the Germans in November 1942. Mersik died in early 1943. In addition to the writings and diary (in Hebrew) of Mordechai Tenenbaum, the archive contains: songs from the ghetto, folklore, copies of German documents and protocols of the meetings of the Judenrat. These documents were — in Tenenbaum's words — to serve as testimony "for future generations". The collections of the archives of the Bialystok Ghetto are at Yad Vashem and Lohamei Hagettaot.
back to top
The Vilna Ghetto Archives
The material in the Vilna Ghetto archives was collected by A. Sutzkever, Sh. Kaczerginski and others together with Zelik Kalmanowitz and Herman Kruk — literati who kept diaries on the events in the ghetto — participated in an organized attempt to preserve Jewish cultural treasures during the years 1941 –1943. The archives contain an exceptionally large amount of documentation on the cultural and spiritual creativity of the Jews of Vilna under the Nazi regime. After the war, the writers Abraham Sutzkever and Shmerke Kachergiflski collected and organized the material. The original documents are at the YIVO Institute (Sutzkever — Kaczergiflski collection) in New York. Copies are at Yad Vashem.
back to top
The Theresienstadt Ghetto Archives
The idea of collecting documentary material first arose in late 1943, when the German authorities in Theresienstadt issued a decree prohibiting the collection of written materials without the approval of the camp authorities. The suggestion was made by Hehalutz activIsts and they worked on this project until they were deported to the death camps In October 1944. The collection of material continued until the spring of 1945. These activities, which were carried out during the time in which the Nazis planned to destroy all incriminating evidence, were a manifestation of the staunch determination to foil their plans and thus to ensure the preservation of evidence regarding the Nazis' crimes and the rich cultural life which the Jews were able to maintain despite the difficult conditions. The archive contains an
entire section of children's works — including prose and drawings. The archives were brought to Israel by Ze'ev Shek, one of the initiators of the project, and are presently at Yad Vashem.
back to top
The Lodz Ghetto Archives
On September 17, 1940, an archive department was established by the Lodz Aeltestenrat (Judenrat). The archive was to collect all material dealing with the ghetto and to compose monographs and reports on life in the Lodz Ghetto. Among the special projects undertaken by the archives were an encyclopedia of the ghetto and albums of the various workshops which describe the life of the ghetto Inhabitants using photographs, drawings and statistics. In January 1941 the archive began publishing an internal informative bulletin entitled Biuletyn Kroniki Codziennej. The bulletin appeared in German and Polish and was published until July 1944. It Is one of the most Important sources on the history of the Lodz Ghetto. The original documents are in Lodz. Copies are at Yad Vashem.
back to top
Occupied Warsaw and the Ghetto
The city of Warsaw was occupied by the Nazis in late September 1939. In November 1940, a ghetto were established in Warsaw, which at one point had close to half a million inhabitants. On July 22, 1942 the large–scale deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to the death camps began and during the following seven weeks, over 250,000 people were deported. The first armed uprising In Warsaw took place in January 1943, and on April 19, 1943, when the Germans launched an attempt to liquidate the last remnants of the ghetto, the Warsaw Ghetto Revolt began. The revolt lasted until mid–May, at which time the ghetto was destroyed and razed to the ground.
In occupied Warsaw and later In the ghetto there was an intensive cultural life and ramified underground activities were carried out for more than three years, despite the starvation, epidemics, and high mortality rate. The leadership of the underground youth movements and political parties were located in Warsaw, many clandestine newspapers were published in the city, a ramified educational network was established, and a wide range of cultural activities was organized, among them–projects to disseminate Yiddish language and culture (Yikor) and Hebrew language and culture (Tekuma) as well as hundreds of cultural evenings and lectures on diverse subjects. Intensive cultural life was maintained in various homes after curfew hours. Many authors wrote original works in the ghetto. TheatTical activity under German supervisIon and censorship was permitted in the Warsaw Ghetto, but illegal performances were held as well. In addition to all the above activities, the various groups in Warsaw sent emissaries with information, illegal newspapers, etc. to other ghettos in order to maintain steady contact with the Jewish communities.
back to top
Literary Works of Yitzhak Katzenelson
During his stay in Warsaw (November 1939 — in the Warsaw Ghetto. He taught in clandestine April 1943), the noted poet and educator seminars and in the illegal high school Yitzhak Katzenelson (1886–1944) wrote over established by the Dror youth movement. He forty lIterary works in Yiddish and Hebrew. The also taught youngsters how to work with majority of these works was either published In children In special activities sponsored by the the underground press, read by the poet himself house committees, and organized two dramatic ki public readings, or staged in the ghetto. troupes, one for plays in Yiddish, the other for Among these works were plays, poems, Yiddish presentations In Hebrew. Katzenelson's literary translations of portions of the Bible and of his works are linked with the history of the ghetto, own works written in Hebrew before the war, and he consistently tried to interpret his children's plays which were staged in the experiences in the light of Jewish history. The orphanages In the ghetto, a daily chronicle of majority of his works are in the archives of Beit current events, literary criticism, etc. Lohamei Hagettaot, an institute which bears his Katzenelson was very active in the cultural life name.
back to top
The Lodz Ghetto
Lodz was one of the first cities in occupied Poland in which the Germans established a ghetto. Approximately 160,000 Jews — residents of Lodz and Its environs as well as deportees from Germany and the Protectorate — were originally concentrated in the ghetto, where they were totally isolated from the outside world and were coerced into doing forced labor for the Germans. Thousands of Jews died in the ghetto of starvation and epidemics; others were deported to the death camps. The ghetto was liquidated in the summer of 1944, shortly before the liberation of the Lodz area by the Red Army. Despite the situation In the ghetto,the political parties and youth movements sponsored clandestine cultural activities. Street singers made up caustic satirical folk songs, photographers took pictures of life in the ghetto, an illegal information bulletin was published which contained censored political news, original literary works were written and a wide range of educational activities were conducted.
back to top
The Literary Works of Yeshayahu Spiegel
Yeshayahu Spiegel — who was born in Lodz In of garbage outside the house in which he hid 1906 and who survived the Holocaust and is part of his writings before he was deported from presently living in Israel — wrote realistic prose the ghetto. The photographs on display are of describing the inner world and struggles of the the original manuscripts, approximately 150 individual in the ghetto against the background pages of which Spiegel found, and which to this of the trials and tribulations endured by the day have not been published in their original Jewish community of Lodz. The hunger, cold, form. The photographs accompanying the and death which permeated the ghetto and the manuscripts depict the situation described by alienation of the inhabitants are the central Spiegel in his works. The stories he recovered themes in Spiegel's prose, the majority of which describe the years 1939–1941, during which the was confiscated in Auschwitz. The many poems masses of Jews in the Lodz Ghetto were forced which he wrote were lost during the Holocaust, to live under terrible conditions (hunger, cold, After the war, Spiegel succeeded In recovering and epidemics) as a result of which many of the the manuscripts of 17 of his stories from a pile ghetto inhabitants perished.
back to top
The Vilna Ghetto
The Vilna Ghetto was established on September 6, 1941 and existed for approximately two years. Close to two-thirds of the Jews of Vilna and its environs were murdered at Ponar, a site of mass murders outside the city during the period from the beginning of the German occupation in July 1941 until December of the same year. The remaining 20,000 Jews were concentrated in the ghetto. The Inhabitants of the ghetto conducted a wide variety of cultural activities as well as intensive educational projects, both of which were organized by writers, artists, and public figures.
In January 1942, the first declaration calling for armed resistance against the Nazis was read at a meeting of the members of the pioneer Zionist youth movements in Vilna and in the same month the Fareinikte Partizaner Organizatsie (United Partisan Organization) was established whose goal was to prepare for armed resistance. Messengers were sent from Vilna to many other Jewish communities Including Warsaw and they played an instrumental role In disseminating the idea of armed resistance. A portion of the F.P.O. archives are in "Moreshet."
back to top
The Vilna Works of Abraham Sutzkever
Abraham Sutzkever, who was born in Smorgon in 1913, wrote many works, most of them poems, in occupied Vilna, the ghetto and the forests during the period from late June 1941 until March 1944. Part of his works was lost but a substantial portion was saved as was Sutzkever. To date more than eighty of the works Sutzkever wrote during the Nazi occupation have been published. The young author was very active in cultural affairs and among the youth in the Vilna Ghetto and later joined the partisans who escaped to the forests prior to the liquidation of the ghetto. Abraham Sutzkever played an important role in the rescue of Jewish cultural treasures and of the Vilna Ghetto archives founded by Herman Kruk. During his stay in the ghetto and after the war, Sutzkever and the poet Sh. Kaczerginski saved several of the items on display in this exhibition.
Sutzkever's works during the period of the Nazi occupation reflect the internal struggles in the ghetto, the Jewish pride manifested by many of its inhabitants and the hopes for a different future for the Jewish people — a future in its own land.
back to top
Theatrical Performances in the Ghettos
In Warsaw, Lodz, and Vilna theatrical performances of various kinds were staged during the ghetto period and were an integral part of the organized cultural life In the ghetto. During the difficult, tension–filled days in the ghetto before the large–scale deportations, these performances — as well as the theater in the ghetto which was used as a meeting place for festive occasions and where musical performances and poetry readings were also held — served as a means of reducing tension and fulfilling the inhabitants' aesthetic needs. Besides the standard pre–war repertoire, original plays written in the ghetto were staged or read to live audiences.
back to top
Jewish Education
During the stage of ghettoization which preceded the extermination, the plight of the Jewish elementary schools and high schools differed from ghetto to ghetto. In those locations where formal education was absolutely forbidden, clandestine educational frameworks were established under various guises. Aside from Lodz and Vilna, there were no ghettos in which high schools were allowed to function. In Warsaw , for example, high school education became an underground project which encompassed 20% of the youth of high school age. The primary importance of these educational projects was to create a cultural atmosphere and an intellectual tension which helped ease the integration of the students into adult society and which prepared them for participation in the armed resistance upon reaching adulthood.
The Jewish educational institutions took care of thousands of orphans who, in the wake of the war and the persecutions, were left homeless and without relatives and who otherwise were doomed to become street urchins — totally defenseless and in conflict with society. The situation of the children and teenagers during the Holocaust caused very difficult and complicated problems and even when there were solutions they often were available only to a small minority of the youngsters. The tremendous devotion of the teachers and educational staff of the Jewish educational institutions is legendary. Suffice it to mention the noted author and educator Dr. Janusz Korczak, the director of the orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto. The activities of the workers in the fields of welfare, education and art and their concern for their charges are mentioned very frequently in the accounts published at that time as well as in memoirs published after the war.
back to top
Youth Movements
Youth movements were the major force in the underground and their members were the organizers of armed resistance in many ghettos — Warsaw, Bialystok, Vilna, Sosnowitz, Cracow , Czenstochowa, and elsewhere. The activities initiated by the youth movements during the period before they engaged in armed resistance laid the organizational and ideological foundations for the ghetto revolts and prepared the youth for the armed struggle against the Nazis.
Following the German occupation, the youth movements undertook various community responsibilities. Clandestine educational frameworks were established, self-help projects and cultural activities were undertaken for the entire Jewish population, special emissaries maintained contact between the various ghettos, training–farms were set up, and a ramified underground press was published. These two displays are dedicated to the organizational, cultural, and educational activities which, throughout Nazi-occupied territory, preceded the deportations and the armed resistance.
back to top
Research Conducted in the Ghettos on Judaica and on the Persecution and Destruction of Jews by the Nazis
Research on the Holocaust in essence began in the ghettos themselves. In Vilna, Lodz, Warsaw , and Bialystok , for example, research projects were planned and large amounts of documentation were collected. in the Warsaw Ghetto, research was carried out on such topics as starvation, contemporary Jewish literature, economic life, social stratification, and the place of Eretz Israel in the thinking of the intelligentsia. In Lodz one of the projects undertaken was a cultural history of the ghetto, a project which was in fact partially completed. In Viina, for example, the reading habits of the ghetto population were studied. In many places, research was conducted on subjects related to Jewish history and Jewish culture, and a great deal of attention was devoted to research techniques and the choice of topics as part of the attempt to impart meaning to the historical events.
These activities are one of the manifestations of the determination of the Jews to leave evidence of their suffering for future generations, and to preserve their human dignity despite the horrible conditions. Only a few of these researches were recovered, but they make it clear that besides the research conducted on the daily life of the Jews, there was also an attempt to examine the specifics of the situation of the Jews, and Jewish existence in the Diaspora.
back to top
Diaries
Diaries are one of the more important types of documents which survived the Holocaust period as they give us insight into the responses of wide segments of the Jewish population. Hundreds of diaries were discovered after the war, but these represent only a small portion of all those written during this period. A large number of these documents have still not been published. In Yad Vashem alone, there are approximately 100 diaries (among them several written by children), the majority of which were written in Poland (37) and Holland (34), with others from Hungary (5), Rumania (4), Lithuania (3), Czechoslovakia (3), France (2), Austria (1), etc. On these two panels, a selection of hereto unpublished diaries in various languages are displayed. As opposed to chroniclers who recorded the events around them, which could also be corroborated by other sources, the writers of the diaries wrote of their personal feelings and thereby provide us with insight into their internal lives. The diaries therefore give us information which cannot be obtained from any other source. In many cases they served as the only means of expression for Jews who suffered through the trials and tribulations of the Holocaust.
Published Anthologies of Poetry and Prose
During the last thirty–five years only part of the literary works written during the Holocaust was published. The authentic literary works produced under Nazi rule have not yet been collected, and despite the fact that many poetry anthologies and prose creations were published after the war, the majority of the works written during the Holocaust have still not appeared in print.
These literary works — the work of authors of all ages and from various sectors of the population — constitute unique documents which give us insight into internal Jewish life and the response of wide sectors of the Jewish population in the various ghettos and camps, they reveal various aspects of the Jewish experience during this period which are not expressed in any other way.
back to top
Music Under Nazi Rule
Music constitutes one of the classical forms of resistance as well as of resignation and expresses the anguish of the oppressed. It is a direct expression of the human condition, which often Is transformed into the voice of human vitality under the most difficult conditions. The hundreds of songs sung by the Jewish masses in the ghettos, camps, and forests are perhaps the most widespread and impressive expression of the feelings of the Jewish people in Nazi–occupied Europe. The Jews of the ghettos — starved and doomed to death as they were — sang, despite the conditions. Songs and music were composed in the ghettos and these were performed by choirs and orchestras. There was a debate in many ghettos whether in view of the tragic conditions concerts should be held. The reality of life in the ghettos led to the decision to stage the performances.
back to top
Literature and Art in the Forests and Camps
Before being murdered, many Jews were sent to camps in which they were incarcerated. Other Jews sought shelter in the forests. Despite the terrible conditions, some were able to produce works of art and write original works in the forests and even in the labor camps, concentration camps, and death camps. Due to the conditions in these places, however, very few of these original works survived the war. There was a very strict regimen in the camps and those caught engaging in literary or artistic activities were often executed. Nonetheless, works from various camps (Plaszow, Neustadt, the camps in Upper Silesia, Bergen Belsen, Auschwitz, etc.) as well as from the forests of Naroch, Derechin, Voronetz, etc., have survived — living evidence of the courage which did not fail even when confronted with death. According to the testimony of many survivors, the cultural activites had a very special significance for those in the camps because of the inmates' search for sources of inspiration and encouragement which strengthened their desire to live.
back to top
Writers and Fighters
During the Holocaust, writers and intellectuals often joined the ranks of the fighters and among the latter were several who also engaged in literary activities. Several of the more famous writer–fighters were: Chaim Yellin in Kovno; Abba Kovner, Abraham Sutzkever, and Shmaryahu Kaczerginski in Vilna; Mordechai Anielewicz, Hirsch Berlinsky, Shmuel Breslav, Abrasha Blum, Yoseph Kaplan, Eliezer Geller, and Yitzhak Zuckerman in Warsaw; Mordechai Tenenbaum in Bialystok; and Rabbi Shmuel Shiomo Leiner (the Rebbe of Radzyn) in Wlodava. These individuals recorded a chapter of bravery and courage in the annals of Jewish history which are manifested both in their deeds and in their writings. Due to their indomitable spirit, they were able — in a unique way — to forge a unity of deeds and ideals.
back to top
The Fate of Jewish Books
Starting on May 10, 1933 — the day on which books by Jewish authors and by opponents of the Nazi regime were burned in public in cities throughout Germany — the Nazis never ceased to steal, confiscate, burn, and destroy Jewish books. The fight they waged against the Jews was simultaneously a struggle against Judaism. Despite the conditions in Europe, Jews continued to read and even to write books, and clandestine lending libraries were established in various Jewish communities. During the period of the Final Solution, Jews established commemoration projects, tried their utmost to preserve written documentary material, and organized the rescue of thousands of books. Most of the literary works written during that period were lost, and very often the authors suffered the same fate as their works. According to many testimonies, the literary works recovered after the war represent but a small part of the material written during the Holocaust. Yet these works constitute impressive evidence of the spiritual resilience of many Jews during the period of destruction.
 |
 |
back to top
Underground Newspapers and Other Publications
During World War II, Jewish political parties, youth movements, and organizations which were engaged in resistance activities in Poland, France, Rumania, Holland etc., published tens of underground journals. In the Warsaw Ghetto alone, we know of the titles of approximately 50 periodicals and anthologies. The underground newspapers supplied information on current events as well as on ideological and social problems for those segments of the population who sought guidance and support to help them through the chaotic conditions of that time. Illegal newspapers were published in Warsaw for more than two years — from early 1940 until the large–scale deportations of late July 1942. The newspapers were read by thousands. They openly and forcefully expressed the resistance of the organized Jewish community and called for active resistance and an armed revolt against the Nazis.
back to top
Religious Life
The determination exhibited by many Jews in the ghettos and camps to live their lives by observing the commandments of the Torah, despite the horrible conditions, is evidence of their belief in the sanctity of life. This belief was manifested in daily deeds of kiddush ha-chaim (sanctification of life) whereby they hoped — based on their belief in God and the eternity of the precepts of the Torah — to transcend the horrors of their reality in occupied Europe. In the ghettos and even in the camps Jews continued to learn Torah, pray, do phylacteries, light Chanukah candles, observe the commandment of Iulav and etrog on Sukkot, hear the shofar on Rosh Hashana, have a seder on Passover, etc. The Jews viewed the Nazis' war against them as the struggle between two mutually–exclusive forces in human nature — the force of prophecy which seeks to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and the force of administrative power whose goal is to establish the rule of man over his fellow men. The determination to maintain one's faith in the God and Torah of Israel was further evidence of the firm belief of the Jew throughout the war that regardless of what would happen to him personally, Hitler and his cohorts would one day be overthrown.
 |
 |
back to top
Children and Their Works
Approximately one and a half million Jewish children were murdered during the Holocaust. These youngsters struggled for their lives and the lives of their relatives in the ghettos and camps, and manifested an ability to adapt to difficult conditions and an overwhelming desire to live, but unfortunately met a tragic fate. The Nazis were particularly cruel to children because they considered them the nucleus for the continuity of the Jewish people and because they could not be put to work for them. We are presenting a small selection of works by children, among them diaries, paintings, sketches, and photographs of the drawings of the children of the Theresienstadt Ghetto. Of the approximately 15,000 youngsters who lived in that ghetto, only 100 survived the Holocaust. Thousands of their paintings were preserved and are currently in the Jewish Museum in Prague.
back to top
Artistic Works From Ghettos and Camps
The following four plates show photographs of original artistic works drawn in Nazi–occupied Europe which are presently at Yad Vashem and Beit Lohamei Hagettaot. Thousands of works were recovered after the war and are presently in these two institutions, as well as in similar Jewish institutions in Israel and the Diaspora, and in private hands.
It should be noted that the Nazis confiscated and destroyed thousands of works of Jewish art. Throughout this period, however, Jewish artists continued to draw and paint in the ghettos and camps and thereby created a unique new chapter in the annals of Jewish art.
back to top
Graffiti on Prison Walls, Wills and Messages of Those Sent to Their Death
The following two plates display wills or other messages composed by Jews on their way to their deaths.
Among these statements are those directed toward future generations. They reveal a wide range of situations and responses of Jews in their final hours and moments. The appeals constitute clear–cut evidence of their faith in the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany and of their desire that those on the outside learn of their trials and tribulations.
back to top
|
